Winning is fun, most of the time. After a gruesome 1-3 start it felt like Notre Dame waited an eternity to put something positive in the victory column. On Saturday afternoon the first hour of the game with Syracuse was as wacky and entertaining as anything you’ll see this season. With 10:06 left in the 1st quarter, the Irish led 23-13 and it looked like numerous school records would fall by the wayside.
Ultimately, the game settled down into something far less interesting but one in which Notre Dame actually played some decent defense at times. Anything is possible!
OFFENSE
I thought DeShone Kizer said it best after the game when he mentioned this was the worst 50-point performance he’s ever been apart of in his life. For someone who didn’t watch that would seem like crazy talk. The Irish poured on 654 total yards which was the 2nd most during the Brian Kelly era. The 9.08 yards per play was the highest mark in the last 6+ seasons for Notre Dame, too. The big plays pushed Notre Dame’s season YPP up to 6.94 which is just a tick below last year’s mega-explosive offense.
It was very far from a bad performance so let’s not deal in hyperbole here. Still, explosiveness ruled the day instead of sharpness, consistency, and toughness. Notre Dame put up plays of 79, 67, 44, 54, and 59 yards with 4 of those going for touchdowns. In the other 67 plays from scrimmage the offense averaged a much more meager 5.23 yards per play.
The run game had a decent day but was held under 200 yards, now the 3rd straight week they haven’t hit that mark. Stretching back to last season it’s the 10th time in the last 14 games where the offense was held under 200 rushing yards. Particularly of concern were 13 runs that went for 2 yards or less against the Orange. Any time 1 out of 3 runs are that poor it’s really noticeable. Further, the run success rate of 41.4% against this poor Syracuse defense was nothing to write home about, either.
Josh Adams’ play was emblematic of the run struggles. He had 8 successful runs for 86 yards which is plenty fine. It’s the other 12 carries for 16 yards that hurts the consistency of the offense. At times, he’s looked a little lethargic and unable to pick his holes properly. Something just doesn’t seem to be clicking the way it was last year–maybe the classic sophomore slump? The blocking wasn’t amazing but making 1 and 2-yard runs into 3, 4, or 5-yard runs can go a long way, especially for a bigger tailback.
The highlight reel will undoubtedly be impressed with Kizer’s performance as his 471 passing yards were the most in school history during a Notre Dame victory. Still, there were plenty areas to nitpick none more than 3rd down where Kizer was a paltry 2 of 8 with 1 conversion (the second TD to St. Brown) and a bad sack that took the offense out of field goal range. He threw a horrendous interception right before halftime, missed a wide open Stepherson for a sure-touchdown, and wasn’t much of a factor (20 yards on 7 non-sack carries) in the run game.
The offense was only 1 of 3 in scoring touchdowns in the red zone so expect that and the third down conversions to be a hot-topic this week. With a little more sharpness and a few plays going the other way this should have been a 60+ point performance by Notre Dame.
Switching gears a bit, Equanimeous St. Brown has emerged as the team’s best receiver and I’m not sure it’s close at the moment. The only thing preventing him from a full national break out is that he hasn’t completely taken over yet with 6 receptions in a game as his career-high. Nevertheless, he’s sitting at 25 receptions, 541 yards, and 6 touchdowns through the first 5 games.
More like Equa-gone-eous St. Byebye
— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 1, 2016
You have to give credit to Kizer for spreading the ball around as 10 people caught passes on Saturday. I’m still amazed that Kevin Stepherson is just over a year removed from looking like the skinniest recruit who has ever committed to Notre Dame and is now sitting at 3 touchdowns while being on pace for a 500-yard season.
DEFENSE
Dare I say, the defense outplayed the offense in this game? Given the coaching situation, talent disparity, and the opponent it would be an argument worth having. At the very least, I think the defense’s adjustments in the 2nd and 3rd quarters where Syracuse scored just 7 points on 10 straight drives pretty much won the game while the Irish offense was finding ways to not put the game away early.
First of all, I know with how poorly the defense has played that we’ve become numb to the inexperience. On Saturday though, things reached new unseen before levels. Asmar Bilal picked up his first career start in a box safety-type of a role. Troy Pride got his first minutes of the season. Thanks to a targeting ejection on Devin Studstill we saw Nicco Fertitta, barely a top 1,000 recruit, playing a lot of reps at 1st-team safety. On on at least one snap the entire secondary consisted of true freshmen with senior Cole Luke at nickel. It’s hard to spin this as anything positive (at least for the immediate future) but it’s still amazing to witness.
Greg Hudson’s debut? Hey, not half bad! The tackling woes still continued and allowed Syracuse far too many extra yards. There were still the usual breakdowns, although they were fairly limited. The early returns were not encouraging as Syracuse totaled 281 yards on their first 5 drives. Their next 12 drives only totaled 208 yards which is a huge win for this struggling raggedy defense.
Hudson unsure on the sidelines, still an upgrade over BVG
Notre Dame spent most of this game in a 3-man front and it worked pretty well. Syracuse only paid token attention to the run game and there were no rushes over 18 yards. The Orange running backs were pretty well bottled up, too. As the game wore on the Irish 3-man front was really starting to cave in a really underwhelming Syracuse offensive line. The Orange didn’t help themselves with numerous drops, either.
We saw really strong games from Morgan, Martini, Coney, and Vaughn. Those were my 4-stars of the game on defense. I didn’t really notice Tranquill all that much yet he came up with a team-leading 4 solo stops among 13 total tackles.
The Irish still feel so unlucky when it comes to creating havoc–I’m absolutely positive we lead the country in almost-tackles for loss, granted the missed tackles sure don’t help the situation. There must have been 3 or 4 tackles by Notre Dame right at the line of scrimmage and they were all credited as positive snaps for Syracuse. At the end of the afternoon just 1 sack and 7 tackles for loss which is below average nationally but about the best this defense can do right now.
I was most proud of the defense following Kizer’s interception right before halftime and how they responded to begin the second half. Syracuse was limited by time in the former drive but there was a sense of impending doom as the Orange could’ve taken a lead even with Notre Dame scoring 33 in the first half. On those two drives, Syracuse was limited to 28 yards on 10 plays for 0 points.
Recap
Special teams certainly played a factor on Saturday. On the bad side of the ledger Syracuse had a 74-yard punt return, Yoon missed a field goal, and a bad hold by Fertitta on a fake-punt gifted a 1st down to the Orange. On the positive side, Sanders scored on a kickoff return, Yoon hit two field goals (Syracuse’s lone attempt missed), Newsome/Claypool pinned the Orange at their 1-yard line, and Cole Luke returned a blocked PAT from Jarron Jones for an extra 2 points. I’ll take this arrangement every game.
Is there any chance Chase Claypool switches to defense in the future? This seems like such a smart move where so much more help is needed on that side of the ball. I know I’ve been wanting that since he signed with the Irish. Claypool added 3 more tackles on special teams, including an athletic as heck stop on Syracuse’s big punt return. He now has 6 tackles on the season, including more solo tackles than Daniel Cage!
Dexter Williams suffered what looked like a serious knee injury and thank goodness he was fine afterwards. Tarean Folston was in uniform and in good spirits on the sidelines but didn’t play. On Sunday, we learned from Brian Kelly that Folston suffered a minor sprained ankle late in the week and they held him out for precautionary reasons.
I’m usually pretty apathetic about announcers. A few guys are really good, a few guys are really bad. I can’t remember a color guy being so outright angry and upset watching a football game than Brock Huard this weekend. There was a stretch in the first half where he rained on the parade of anything positive for either team. It was so bad that if I were part of the ESPN team I would have some words with him this week. There comes a time when you have to realize you’re part of a television business that deals in entertainment not moral indignation that the game isn’t played the way you want it to be played.
Straight miserable today. pic.twitter.com/vOsPmCkflH
— 18 Stripes (@18stripes) October 1, 2016
Although the Irish picked up their 2nd win this wasn’t a great weekend while looking over the schedule. Out of the 7 teams in action 5 outright lost games including Stanford, Duke, Navy, Michigan State, and Nevada. Of course, one could say that a couple of those games now look a lot more winnable. Stanford, in particularly, was shredded to pieces by Washington and now sit with the lowest YPP average of anyone on the Irish schedule. One team that didn’t lose was NC State who handily defeated Wake Forest. The Wolfpack are up next this weekend, another noon game.
You’d think he’d be more chipper, what with his Huskies wrecking Stanford.
Career 300yd passing games:
Brock Huard-4
DeShone Kizer-5
Punchable faces:
Brock Huard-1
DeShone Kizer-0
Ohhhhhh, he totally has that face. He’s on the list now with Bert.
There’s a reason you’re calling the noon ESPN game, Brock. Matter of fact, I think we’re going to move you down to the “Ocho”.
Huard is the Debbie Downer of ESPN. His comments sounded as if he wanted to call a 0-0 tie game.
He’d be great at calling Dodgeball matches…that sport is all about that kind of negativity from the announcers.
I desperately want to know what our defensive hand motions mean. The “bump my fists” Hudson looks confused over is funny, but I especially liked the “making it rain”
I forgot to mention my outrage over the targeting call on review. According to the announcers the first time in the process that it was enacted. My only thought at the time; of course, why would it not happen to ND.
Instead of happening in the Texas game like it should have.
Yeah, I was pretty pissed, but I do appreciate that someone is taking player safety more seriously (Big12, excluded). It was such an unnecessary play by Studstill.
BK was pretty pissed about the targeting call as well.
One could argue that Studstill’s play was targeting – I wouldn’t, because he was clearly trying to pull up, but it fit the visual checklist, anyway. But the fact that that ticky-tack version of it ended up being the very first targeting replay overturn, and it went against us, after a blatant targeting on one of our players was ignored by a replay official employed by the conference our opponent plays in…it really made me mad.
It was also extremely predictable. I wasn’t the only ND fan on the Internet who was pretty sure we’d get a targeting replay overturn against us at some point this year after that fiasco in Texas.
Really? I watched the replay probably 10 times. It looked to me like a dirty hit to the head of a sliding QB.
It’s possible, but if he was going for a dirty hit, he did a weak job of it.
Well he’s a defender at ND, so that seems correct.
Our guys can’t even cheapshot right?! Fire Kelly!
I think “dirty” is pretty strong – I highly doubt that he intended to hit Dungey in the head. I think he had a brain fart moment and tried to hit Dungey in the upper body, and misjudged by enough that he hit him in the head instead.
I agree with the personal foul on the field, and the targeting call by the replay booth. Yes, it’s extremely frustrating and even predictable that the first time it happened was against us, but if we’re serious about improving player safety we should take it as a positive that someone is taking it seriously. Unlike, you know, the Big 12, who had neither the cajones to put player safety first in the moment nor the ethics to do so with the benefit of hindsight.
This. I was really really frustrated with it in the moment, but that was completely due to the circumstances of it being reviewed/called for the first time on us as opposed to legit times it should have been in the first few weeks, including the Texas hit (this was a problem in other games as well.) The reason it was called was because it wasn’t called before and the media was up in arms for the last 4 weeks about it, so they were going to call it no matter how “borderline” it might have seemed. It wasn’t borderline–it met all the conditions to warrant the call and ejection. I do agree with others that it wasn’t nearly as egregious a hit as some others we’ve seen. I don’t think anyone is saying it shouldn’t have been called because it wasn’t called before–I think we’re all just a bit miffed that those worse hits weren’t called.
I agree with that completely. The problem is that the NCAA has tried to remove all discretion from the decision and the referees just will not toe the line, or at least not consistently. Anecdotally, I’d say the ACC is much tougher on it than the Big 12, and not just in our games. The SEC I think has been decent on it – the ref who tossed Bosa from the Fiesta Bowl was an SEC guy.
Then you have guys like the Big 12 refs saying “well, I don’t think it was targeting.” They took intent out of the rule! Freaking call it! I don’t know what kind of hammer, if any, the NCAA has to drop on these guys, though. I think they only really answer to their conferences. It’s ridiculous.
Throughout the game, I got way giddy about the future of these receivers. They are deep, talented, and young. Of all the position groups, it is easily the most exciting. Between EQ, CJ, KJ, potentially Torii with another year, Claypool (assuming he stays offense), the return of Alize in 2017, and McKinley, this group is going to be something else.
It’s the rebirth of the A.F.R.O.S.
Is it just me, or Hudson looks a little like Larry the Cable Guy?
Loved the defensive effort, maybe the Duke loss was worth it for the shake up…drinks.
Plenty of points left out there, Kizer typically throws a great deep ball, easy to get greedy and expect him to hit them all.
Defense jumped offsides maybe 5 times? Wow, but if that’s the price you pay for having a pulse and passion, it’s worth it.
Fertita, they called PI on him I believe (or should have because contact was after the throw). They should have picked that up, very uncatchable.
The call on Fertitta was definitely holding (10yd penalty). He just basically grabbed the guy around the neck and spun him around.
Which is not to say the call was correct. You may be right that it should’ve been PI. I think I just wanted to highlight again what an awful play it was by Fertitta.
No PI behind the line of scrimmage, by rule. Defensive holding was the right call. Also what should’ve been called on MSU when they tackled CJ Sanders basically right off the snap on a screen play on our first drive.
Not that I’m bitter.
Noon start vs. NC St. Who’s doing the broadcast ?
ABC and hopefully not Brock Huard.
Be careful what you wish for. Mike Patrick and Ed Cunningham did the noon ABC game this last week.
About the defense: they really looked better. I wouldn’t give any awards for tackling, but it seemed much better than last week. I think the simplified scheme helped, but I’m curious about the channel. Is it because:
a) They had more time in practice for tackling drills (with learning less plays)
b) They could play more instinctively because they had less responsibilities (particularly the linemen)
c) Some other reason?
I thought tackling early was pretty close to as bad as usual and then improved a little over the course of the game. Even if all they did in practice last week was tackle, I don’t think 4-5 practices is enough time to really fix anything. My guess is they had less to worry about and were able to start each play with a clearer head, plus the general emphasis this week on a more positive attitude probably shook them out of the doldrums a little.
The defense gave up 166 yards and 6 points in the second half. If not for some crap punt coverage, they would’ve give up 13 points in the last three quarters. That’s pretty good against S&P+’s 33rd-ranked offense. Like kiwi said, I hope they can maintain. Did we excise rotten flesh Saturday, or did we just debride a wound that will become reinfected?
The defense played demonstrably better after Studstill went out. Maybe it was a coincidence, I admit I don’t know for sure. Any thoughts on that?
They played demonstrably better after:
1) Most people in Chicago had finished lunch.
2) Many English people were tidying up after tea.
3) The traffic around Met Life stadium had eased up.
All of those are correlations that imply greater causation than the one you cite, IMO.
Wait, why would a change in personnel not potentially correlate to a change in performance on the field? Are you implying that a defense cannot improve by changing out the players who are playing horribly?
I’m not saying Studstill is responsible for all of the problems in our secondary, but to completely dismiss that the defense could improve by substituting for him is silly. He has easily been one of the worst performers this season (missed tackles every game, poor angles, biting on every play fake, etc).
Every defensive back is tied for the worst performer this season. Not sure why he needs to be singled out.
Another nicely balanced report, Eric. I look forward to these every week.
there are a number of studies showing that any change leads to at least a temporary performance improvement, for instance changing the lighting in an office bay. Let’s hope this improvement on D has more legs.